1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic sheet feeding apparatus used with an image forming system such as a copying machine, printer, printing machine and the like.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, in image recording systems of the above type such as copying machines, the compactness of the systems has been requested to save the installation space. On the other hand, to avoid the troublesome in the sheet supply, it has also been requested to provide a sheet feeding apparatus having the great sheet stack capacity even in the small-sized image forming system.
For these requirements, in the past, as shown in FIG. 7, there has been proposed a sheet feeding apparatus wherein a paper deck b having the great sheet supplying ability is arranged at a side of an image forming system a so that the sheet can be supplied from the paper deck b. However, with this arrangement, since the paper deck b is protruded from the image forming system laterally, the installation space for the system is increased accordingly. Further, since an operator must load new sheets in the paper deck at the side of the system, the working space for the operator must be reserved, thus further increasing the installation space.
By the way, U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,829 discloses a sheet feeding apparatus wherein a pair of trays or cassettes for containing sheets to be fed to a printer are arranged within a frame for supporting the printer. In this apparatus, the pair of trays or cassettes are disposed in an inverted V-shaped fashion so that the sheet is ejected from an outlet formed in an upper central portion of the frame and the sheet is supplied from an inlet formed in a bottom central portion of the printer.
In this way, by arranging a plurality of sheet containing means within the frame for supporting the printer, it is possible to increase the sheet supplying ability.
However, with the arrangement as mentioned above, since the operator must perform the replenishment of the sheets and the loading of the cassettes at the side of the apparatus, the additional working space is required at the side of the apparatus for performing such operation. Accordingly, even when the image forming system can be made small-sized, the installation space therefor cannot substantially be reduced.